In a recent verdict, Okoye Blessing Nwakaego was sentenced to three years in prison by the Federal High Court in Lagos for cyberstalking Nollywood actress Eniola Badmus.
Justice Nicholas Oweibo reached this decision after Nwakaego pleaded guilty to two counts of cyberstalking.
However, the judge took into account the convict’s remorse and offered an alternative option to pay a fine of N150,000 in place of serving jail time.
The charges against Nwakaego and her accomplice, Chimabia (who is currently at large), date back to the period between December 2022 and July 2023 in Lagos when they conspired to commit the cyberstalking offence.
The two were found to have deliberately transmitted false and offensive information via various social media platforms, including Tiktok, Gossipmill TV, and remedy blog, using Nwakaego’s mobile number.
The intention behind their actions was to cause annoyance, inconvenience, danger, insult, injury, criminal intimidation, enmity, hatred, and needless anxiety to the detriment of Eniola Badmus.
The prosecution counsel, Nosa Uhumwangho, presented the facts of the case to Justice Oweibo, revealing that Nwakaego admitted to making the defamatory video under the influence of a male friend.
This friend falsely claimed to have knowledge about Eniola Badmus and manipulated Nwakaego into creating the video, which accused the actress of introducing young Nigerian girls to men.
As a result of their scheme, the video garnered over three million views online.
In light of the severity of the crime and its infringement on the Cybercrimes Act of 2015, Nwakaego faced a conviction on the specified charges of cyberstalking, resulting in the imposed sentence by the court.
